WALLED-IN DOORS

Walled-in doors are everywhere in Italy 

Dear Readers and Friends of Cama, I apologize with those of you who are not Catholic, in this blog you will find many references to the Catholic Church (and the Orthodox Church for their ikons) there is no intention of advertising the official religion of Italy. In the past the Roman Catholic Church was a major patron of the arts and therefore most of the works of art in Italy are located in churches or are religious places themselves. The greatest Italian Renaissance artists have worked for Popes. I look at churches as museums  and inspirational places for their works of art along with appreciating the gift of peace and their purifying scent of incense. 

WALLED-IN DOORS IN ITALY

The most famous walled-in door in Italy is called "Holy Door" and is located in the Basilica of Saint Peter in Rome. This door is dismantled by the usage of a pickaxe every beginning of the Jubilee Jear of the Roman Catholic Church, on the Christmas eve of the previous year. The Holy Door remains open for the Jubelee celebrations and covered up again on February 6th of the following year. The Jubilee takes place every twenty-five years and is the year of forgiveness, reconciliation, peace, salvation and payment of debts to debtees and creditors. There are also Jubilees for special occasions. Pope Boniface VIII started the Jubilees tradition based on an old Jewish tradition in the year 1300, the last Jubilee was in the year 2000 and the next one will take place in 2025. The city of Rome is already  getting ready for this important event.

Rear of the Walled Holy Door in the Basilica of Saint Peter in
Rome. (photo by Paul Bruder)

Rome was one of the applicant cities
for the XXXII Olympic games of 2020. The name
of the hosting city will be announced on September
7, 2013 among the remaning cities which are as follows:
Baku, Doha, Istanbul, Madrid and Tokyo.  

The Jubilee is a great opportunity for pilgrimages, after the withdrawal of Rome as the city of the Olympic games of 2020, Rome looks forward to the Jubilee of 2025 as the next opportunity of revival of the city with an international echoing for the whole Italian peninsula. 

Symbol of the pilgrims
(it was originally used to drink clear
waters in ponds along the way to
the sanctuary of destination)

The Jubilee of 1950 must have been a very important Jubilee. It started the tradition of mass religious pilgrimages. In Rome there were three millions and a half visitors that year. Fifty years later, in the Jubilee of the year 2000 pilgrims visiting Rome were twenty-five millions (more than seven times that number) with seventy thousand volunteers. 

Example of a walled-in door 

Under different circumstances in 1971, I assisted to the covering up of a door and it was not as promising. That door was never reopened. This event changed my life and the life of my family forever. 




Popular Italian saying:  "Chiusa una porta, si apre un portone" (tr. "when one door closes, one gate opens"). 

(to be continued...) 

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Original Posts by Roberta Niccacci -

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